Voice Actor Who Played ‘Dale’ Had An Important Lubbock Connection

King of the Hill is one of the most beloved shows about Texas ever, mostly because of how authentically hilarious it is. Show creator Mike Judge has spent much of his adult life in Texas, and you can tell he has a bemused love of it here.

Fun Fact: his other monster success Beavis and Butthead also takes place in a fictional Texas town. Yup, those two boys are Texans, and it's highly suspected that they've been to Lubbock recently.

It makes sense that Judge would find talent for King of the Hill with real Texans. Johnny Hardwick, the voice of fan-favorite Dale Gribble, was born and recently died in Austin, Texas. He also went to college in Texas: Lubbock's Texas Tech University!

WRECK EM with that pocket sand Dale!

According to Johnny Hardwick's Wikipedia page, Hardwick received his Journalism degree at Texas Tech. Hey, that's where I got my degree! Probably one of the more reputable things I have in common with Dale.

Johnny Hardwick brought a lot of heart and hilarity to the character of Dale Gribble. Honestly, Dale should have been a pitiable, pathetic, and unlikable character. Instead, we all love him. His misplaced suspicions are weirdly relatable, and his ability to survive and overcome the strange situations he creates for himself is admirable. Dale has always been my very close second-favorite character in a show I'm utterly obsessed with (sorry, but Bobby always wins for me personally).

No one knows yet what this means for the reboot that has been in the works. We are already short Luanne (Britney Murphy) and Lucky (Tom Petty) due to voice actor deaths. Can there really be a King of the Hill without Dale Gribble?  Maybe. So long as Dale faked his death to avoid the feds, or some other equally convoluted scheme.